


The Test of Endurance

by SilentSiren



Series: Carmilla's Trials [3]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-27 01:23:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2673650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentSiren/pseuds/SilentSiren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carmilla is not dead yet, it takes more than a war against her Mother to take the vampire down and she's feeling more alive than ever. My theories of what could have happened post episode 34 in a sort of AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Dead Yet

The door squeaks open and Laura jumps to her feet, the already quiet room seemingly dropping into further silence until Laura calls out in astonishment, “Carmilla! You’re… you’re alive?”

As soon as the words are out of her mouth she wants to smack herself for saying something so… so _human-_ of course Carmilla isn’t “alive”, she’s technically already dead but at least she’s not dead-er. But the question is how? They _saw_ her die. They saw it with their own eyes, what happened to her no person, human or supernatural, could come back from that!

Carmilla’s swaying slightly and LaFontaine scrutinises the action closely, she’s pretty sure it’s not intentional.

Carmilla laughs but there is no amusement in the sound, it’s dry and self-deprecating. _Ha, I’ve been dead a long time sweet cheeks._ “You’re safe now,” she croaks out as if she’s forgotten there was a large scale battle fighting for their lives. She mindlessly moving through the women that stand in the way of her getting to her bed. Once she reaches it she collapses onto it and is out like a light.

Danny, Perry, LaFonatine and Laura all look at each other in confusion and then at the vampire. She’s been gone for almost a week and that’s all she has to say for herself? LaFonatine pushes Laura forward and she gently shakes Carmilla’s shoulder, “Carmilla?” She pokes and pushes a bit harder but instead of her waking up they hear a sickening _snap, “Oh god I think I broke something!”_ Laura cries in horror.

Carmilla’s dark clothes hid her injuries and it’s not until Danny turns her over and Perry is asking about a first aid kit that they start to poke the vampire and start to discover the expanse of injuries. Perry knows the most first aid but as soon as Laura hoists Carmilla’s shirt up past her stomach the mothering natured woman is feeling queasy and looking a little green.

“Per?” LaFonatine questions.

“Mm no I’m fine, but oh dear what have they done to this poor girl?” Perry’s hands barely touch Carmilla’s skin but she can tell just by looking at the bruises, bites and puncture marks that the broken body in front of her needs someone with far more medical knowledge then her first aid course could ever have covered.

“She didn’t deserve this,” Danny says quietly from Laura’s bed.

“We need to get her to a hospital!” Perry cuts in, pulling Carmilla’s shirt down, unable to look at the blood that cakes her skin or the purple, yellow and blue bruises that show through in between, “Oh god, everything’s broken, everything’s broken,” Perry stumbles off the bed and starts towards the door in a flurry of waving arms and panic, “Oh god oh god oh god, her body shouldn’t squish like that!”

“Perry! Perry!” LaFonatine takes hold of the frantic woman’s arm and directs her out of the dorm room

“ _Everything?!”´_ Laura repeats, “That’s not possible!”

“I’m sure she’s just exaggerating,” Danny replies.

“We have to help her!” Laura cries.

“We will,” Danny assures her.

“Right, okay,” Laura takes a deep breath and wipes away tears that are uncontrollably welling up in her eyes and steps out of the way so that Danny can pick up the vampire.

When they get to the hospital the doctors are astounded by the condition Carmilla is in, never have they seen so many injuries in one person, never have they seen such violence acted out on someone, never in all their years have they seen someone _survive_ so much physical trauma. Carmilla astounds them.

The little gang of women are left in a waiting room with a conflicted Laura and a panicking Perry. Perry is in shock over the extent of the damage done to Carmilla and Laura is caught between her excitement that her vampire is alive, and the horror at what has happened to her.

There are many questions that they need to answer, the most obvious being; what happened to Carmilla? But furthermore there are bigger questions about their safety and the safety of the students at Silas, is the Dean gone? What happens to the ‘almighty powerful and hungry light’ now? What happens to them now? Do they still have exams now or have they been postponed? What’s going to happen to the other vampires now that the Dean is gone?

LaFontaine does her best to comfort Perry as the frantic woman paces up and down the room. Danny holds Laura and a box of tissues and together LaFontaine and Danny share looks of mutual understanding that they too are struggling but must be strong for their counterparts. This war has forced them to get over their dislike for each other and through their time on the battlefield they’ve bonded over their shared traumatic experience.

The doctors tell them that they’re astonished Carmilla is alive but they have a good feeling she’ll stay that way through surgery. They try to convince the group to go home but Perry insists she is too stressed to sleep, Laura bursts into tears at the word ‘home’, LaFontaine says that they won’t leave Carmilla behind again and Danny is left to explain that they have been through too much to leave now and their dorm rooms are not big enough for them all. Staying at the hospital together is better for them then going to their separate rooms. They need each other, they need to be together because who else could ever understand what they’re going through than those who they fought with. Side by side, back to back, bonds were formed out there that night as together they faced something much larger than them or their existence. They understand what no one else can because they were there. Together.

So they stay.

The seats are terribly uncomfortable after twenty minutes of sitting in them and no one manages to sleep even if they try. Every time a doctor, nurse, or receptionist walks within thirty feet of the group they all turn their heads inm hope that there is good news for them. But the hospital staff keep their eyes down and can’t look at the group, they know it will be a very long night and an even longer day. Because that’s how long it takes, 34 hours later a doctor finally come towards them, meeting their questioning gaze with a smile to relieve their worry.

“She’s okay?!” Laura asks before the woman has made it all the way to them.

“Long story short, yes, she will be okay, she-”

“Oh thank god!” Laura sighs and turns to hug Danny.

The doctor decides that perhaps they don’t need to know what happened in surgery right now, they can find out the damage and details after their immediate joy has worn off.

“Can we see her?” LaFontaine asks on everyone’s behalf.

The doctor hesitates a moment before relenting, “Alright, I suppose, you all have been here for a very long time. But I must warn you not to touch her, your friend is very fragile right now.”

“Will she be in pain?” Perry asks before Laura can open her mouth to ask the same thing.

“No, she won’t feel anything so long as we keep giving her medication and pain killers intravenously.”

“Okay, which way to her room?” Danny asks.

“This way,” The doctor turns and leads the way through the hospitals many corridors and floors with the group almost on top of her the whole way, “This is her room but she won’t be awake for a while yet.”

“Okay,” Laura says dismissively and pushes the door open without another glance at anyone, she has to see Carmilla.

And there she is, still, quiet and laid out on a bed in a hospital gown surrounded by white. Everything about it is so anti-Carmilla; the white in comparison to her favored black, the tidy room against the dorm where clothes are strewn everywhere and cover any available surface… However the stillness does match. So still, quiet and pale as the corpse she is supposed to be.

Laura approaches the bed and takes Carmilla’s hand in between hers, studying the woman’s fingers as the others file into the room around her. Machines surround the bed including an IV drip and a heart monitor to which Laura finds it interesting to note that there _is_ a heartbeat, a heartbeat that’s regular and at a steady 64 beats per minute. It’s easier for Laura to focus on their hands because then she doesn’t have to see the casts, bandages and hospital sized ‘band aids’ that cover almost all of her visible body.

Carmilla gasps and her eyes open quickly, with consciousness comes pain and a tear slips down her temple before she can swat it away, “I’m human,” she whispers to the room.


	2. The Test of Memory

“Carmilla!” Laura’s voice screams excitement and it lights a feeling with the bed bound woman, a feeling of hope that she hasn’t felt in a long time.

“Laura,” Her voice is rough and she clears her throat, “what the hell?” It takes a moment before she sees the room and everyone in it.

“Are you alright?” Carmilla just glares in response but it’s rather half hearted, “Right, sorry, you will be okay now though,” Laura says, leaning over and brushing Carmilla’s fringe away from her eye.

“What the hell happened?”

“Wait,” LaFontaine cuts in, “You mean you don’t remember anything?”

Carmilla shakes her head and then looks around the room she’s in, “God, am I in a hospital?!”

“Well yeah, I mean what did you expect us to do when you came in with so many injuries that it would take three hours to list them all?” Danny responded watching as Carmilla surveyed the room and checked herself.

Perry nods enthusiastically beside LaFontaine and takes their hand, “You poor thing, you were absolutely covered in blood and your injuries were- are, far more extensive then I could ever care for. We had to bring you here.”

“Soooo you don’t know what happened?” Laura asked, gingerly sitting on the very edge of Carmilla’s bed.

“Last thing I remember is watching your video announcing that you were going to walk willingly to your deaths. And then you,” She lifts a finger in Danny’s direction and finds that she is currently unable to move her arm, “Came crashing in asking what had happened to Laura and we were going to come rescue you.”

“And you did, you saved us all. Because of you we won the war against the Dean and everyone was freed.”

A deep set frown forms across Carmilla’s face and she shakes her head, “Yes you won but you did not defeat my Mother.”

“We didn’t?!” The whole group choruses.

Carmilla shakes her head slightly and her face scrunches up s little as she tries to remember the details of what happened.

“So what happened then?” LaFontaine asks.

“Wait,” Danny cuts in, “Go back to the part where you said you were _human?_ What did you mean by that?”

Carmilla opens her eyes and looks straight at Danny, “I meant exactly what I said Xena, I am human now.”

“’Now’?” Perry questions.

“Are you people deaf?!”

Laura is the next to speak, “Carm, how is that even possible?”

“Just as a human can be turned in a vampire, a vampire can be restored to human. It’s a long process that few know about and- wait, how long was I out?”

“Out? Only two days, but you’ve been gone over a week, almost two,” Laura answers.

“Since when can vampires be turned human?” Danny asks.

“Uh since always,” Carmilla replies sarcastically.

“How does it work?” LaFonatine asks, they’re far too excited than they really should be over this ‘revelation’.

“I don’t know the details, I only know that it’s a long process and very painful. Mother never told me anything about it and the only reason I know the ritual exists is because I accidently overheard a conversation mentioning it.”

“And breaking a heap of your bones is a part of that?”

Carmilla raises her head as a memory clicks into place, “That was Mother banishing me,” It’s starting to come back, slowly.

“I had a theory that since the sword was supposed to destroy anyone who uses it, that it killed the vampire in you and left you human,” LaFontaine pitched in rather unhelpfully.

“She banished you?!” Laura repeated, registering what LaFontaine said but ignoring it for the time being, she needed to know what affect the banishment had on Carmilla.

“Look there are rules and there are severe consequences when you break them. For going against the group, pack, clan, coven, whatever you want to call them, Mother banished me and they take that very seriously. Essentially you are labelled as a traitor and from the moment your banishment is announced you are an enemy to the pack. If an enemy is spotted in your territory then you have the power to defend it by any means necessary…” Carmilla stopped her explanation there; the group surrounding her bed were smart enough to piece together the rest.

“So, they beat you up cos you helped us?” LaFontaine asked since no one else would say it.

The comment strikes a sore spot with Carmilla as it clicks that everyone is looking at her, waiting to hear the story of how she ended up here in such a condition. Carmilla’s not the open type, and she doesn’t want to talk to anyone who isn’t Laura, “Oh you should see the other guys, I put a world of hurt on them all.”

Danny and Perry shifted somewhat awkwardly, they picked up on Carmilla’s avoidance of the question. Perry tugged LaFontaine’s hand and shooed at Danny to get them to leave, “Well, we’ll leave you to catch up and talk.”

Laura smiled her thanks at them and then turned her attention back to Carmilla when the door clicked shut, “There’s no way you took on all of them.”

“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence Cutie.”

“Carm, there’s a lot of them and only one of you and I can’t imagine that anyone there was on your side. What happened?”

Carmilla sunk back into her bed a little more and looked away from Laura as she told her what she wanted to hear, “Mother banished me and I couldn’t take them all,” she’d looked away because she loathed not being able to hold her own, she hated to admit that she wasn’t strong enough to beat them, she hated to be powerless against such odds, and she hated that she had been defeated.

But even more, she hated that now she had lost herself. Carmilla hated that now she was stuck in a fragile, damaged, mortal body with an expiration date. She had been one of the oldest in her clan, one of the strongest, and she’d liked the power she held. Now she just felt small, weak and filled with anger.

Carmilla didn’t want to be human again. 


End file.
